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2014 Diversonomix Conference: Diversonomix with the NAACP, decease Produces Revolutionary Diversity Conference AMERICAN INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN, cialis JEWISH AMERICAN AND AMERICAN INDIAN EXPERIENCE.October 23, 2014, New York, NY – Columbia University

A TIMELY CONFERENCE WHICH SPEAKS TO THE CURRENT
“GLOBAL” RACIAL CLIMATE
2014 Diversonomix Conference Spotlights Top Minds on Multigenerational Trauma in America to Address the Root of the Country’s Racial and Political Polarization.
This year’s conference comes during a time when there is social unrest regarding police shootings, political schisms and economic disparity.

Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart
Author and Professor of Psychiatry and Director Native American & Disparities ResearchTerrie M. WilliamsBestselling Author/mental Health AdvocateDr. Eva FogelmanSocial Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Author/Filmmaker, Co-Director of Psychotherapy with Generations of the Holocaust and Related Traumas at Training Institute for Mental Health and Child Development and co-director of The International Study of the Organized Persecution of Children/Child Development ResearchMartin Luther King, IIIThe second oldest child of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Human Rights Advocate, Community Activist and Political LeaderDr. Yael DanieliAuthor, Clinical Psychologist, Victimologist, Traumatologist and Director of Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their ChildrenTaz BouchierElder and Director of Nohkum Nigeh, Practitioner of Indigenous SpiritualityOnaje MuidClinical Associate Director Reality House and Advisor Columbia University School of Social Work

It is argued that the lingering effects of Mass Trauma (MTE) of genocide and slavery created a trauma response, unresolved grief and historical trauma (Brave Heart 1995) and post traumatic slave syndrome (Leary 2001). The effects of major past historical traumatic events have impact not only on the generation where the traumatic event occurred but the generations that follow. This conference will raise awareness of the traumatic repercussions that effect the current generations focusing on slavery, Jewish and the American Indian Holocaust.

$250 million fund seen as merely ‘symbolic’; anger over perceived small amount.

09/10/14Stewart Ain
Staff Writer, The Jewish Week

In their later years, Jews who survived the Holocaust as children — whether in concentration camps, ghettos or in hiding — have experienced psychological problems such as nightmares and health issues related to malnutrition as children.

Now, for the first time, a $250 million fund has been established by Germany and theConference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germanyfor the approximately 70,000 to 75,000 Jewish child survivors worldwide. Each child survivor born after Jan. 1, 1928 will receive a one-time payment of about $3,280 to help pay for those war-related medical needs. About 15 percent of those survivors live in the United States. All are eligible, regardless of wealth, and despite the fact that Germany has already paid them other compensation.

Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, said the special medical needs of child survivors have been discussed with Germany for several years. He said the talks intensified last year and that an agreement was finally hammered out in negotiations two weeks ago in Germany.

“Our argument is that people may have been receiving German pensions for many years because they were in camps or ghettos, but that Germany should acknowledge the special needs of child survivors,” he said. “During their formative years they were in camps, ghettos or in hiding and they suffered psychological trauma. …

“The suffering endured by these young Nazi victims, including devastating separation from parents at a critical time in a child’s development, as well as witnessing unimaginable atrocities, deprivation from proper nutrition, and a range of injurious experiences has had a cumulative effect.

“They are having night terrors for the first time because of that trauma,” he said. “In addition, they have had medical issues that have occurred only later in life. If they did not have proper dental care as a child, they are experiencing dental problems now like the need for dentures. And if they did not have milk as a child, they have a calcium deficiency and there is a greater likelihood of osteoporosis and other skeletal diseases. … For everyone, Germany’s recognition of the deprivation they experienced as children is essential.”

Child survivors interviewed expressed shock at the small amount being offered, but Schneider suggested to The Jewish Week that the amount should be seen as no more than a token recognition of their suffering.

“No amount of money can compensate for what they suffered, but for a very poor person who needs dentures, $3,300 makes a big difference.”

In an email, Seltzer said her organization is “keenly aware of the great needs of the survivors; of the effects of the trauma on their (our) continuing lives. Yes, we have all continued to live in the shadow of these experiences, living with the daily pain of our losses, our memories, our lives without parents, without families. The effects do not diminish with the passage of time.”

In the email, sent from Poland, where she traveled after attending her organization’s 26th annual conference in Berlin in the days leading up to the reparations negotiation, Seltzer pointed out that child survivors “do experience physical effects of the suffering; there are many manifestations as shown in various studies of the long term effects on the lives of survivors.”

“Yes, as we have aged, the losses are felt even more keenly,” she wrote. “There is an absolute void in our lives that has also been part of the lives of our children, now also adults. The physical deprivations and circumstances of survival have led to serious health issues.”

All members of the German negotiating team, as well as some members of the German legislature, attended portions of the conference. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, the Claims Conference’s special negotiator, said he believes that was a key reason the negotiations succeeded.

“It drove home to the German government and the public the special suffering of the children, and that it left lasting scars – no one was exempt,” he said. “Also, with the upcoming 70th anniversary of the end of the war, they wanted to do a special gesture.”

Eva Fogelman, a licensed psychologist and co-director of the International Study of Organized Persecution of Children, which has interviewed 1,500 child survivors since 1981, said many child survivors only began “confronting” their losses in their later years.

“They had no time to mourn after the war,” she said. “They were busy raising a family and working. But retirement often brings on a mourning period. [The feeling of loss] becomes more prevalent as they get older because of their own imminent death. They think more about the parents they knew or did not know, and what life might have been like if they had a father or mother. They are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder that might have been dormant all these years and has now been triggered by such things as a reunion of people from a DP [displaced persons] camp.”

Colette Avital, a former Israeli consul general in New York who was part of the negotiating team in Germany as chair of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, an umbrella group of 54 organizations, told The Jewish Week: “I know the anguish and how those people suffer today, especially when they are getting older and everything comes back to them. And I know that no money in the world could give back their childhood or make amends for what they went through. But this is a gesture of recognition.”

Eizenstat told The Jewish Week that the special suffering of child survivors was why Germany made an exception to its “iron-clad rule” about not making a second type of payment to survivors.

“We convinced [Germany] that they had a unique form of suffering,” he said.

The agreement was also special because, like the homecare agreement reached a year ago, Germany agreed to the extra payments on the condition that it was done as a joint partnership with the Claims Conference.

The Claims Conference, using money it obtained by selling heirless Jewish property in East Germany, is to pay about $70 million of the $250 fund. The German government is to pay the other $180 million, according to Eizenstat.

The Germans initially wanted all child survivors to submit letters from medical doctors or psychologists attesting to the Holocaust-related problems they are now experiencing. But Eizenstat said Claims Conference negotiators said many countries have national health insurance programs that would pay all or most all of their medical expenses.

In addition, he said they argued that such a requirement would be “extremely difficult to administer and that many survivors don’t want it known they have had such problems — it’s an embarrassment issue. We said just give them the cash and if they wanted to use it for medical or dental payments, that would be fine.”

Eizenstat said he found Germany’s decision to make this payment “inspirational and a demonstration that even the second and third generations in Germany feel an obligation to survivors, especially at a time when there is a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.”

The German government estimates the number of child survivors at 70,000; the Claims Conference puts the figure at 75,000. Germany has agreed to pay the entire $3,300 stipend for all child survivors above 70,000.

The entire deal is subject to approval of the German Bundestag or legislature, as well as the board of the Claims Conference. The fund is expected to become operational next Jan. 1; application details will be announced after the fund is approved.

To be eligible, a child survivor must have been born after Jan. 1, 1928, and been in a concentration camp, ghetto (or similar place of incarceration in accordance with the German Slave Labor Program), or in hiding or under false identity for a period of at least six months under Nazi occupied territory or 12 months in Axis countries.

The Claims Conference has successfully negotiated a $250 million landmark agreement with the German government. As a result of last week’s negotiations, a new fund will be established, to be administered by the Claims Conference, for Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust. This joint fund will provide support to Shoah survivors around the world who lived under Nazi occupation and will enable them to receive symbolic financial compensation for the traumas suffered during their childhood. The payment from this fund represents an acknowledgement of the special trauma and hardship endured by children during the Shoah.

Our negotiating delegation emphasized to the German government that because Jewish children were in constant fear of death during the Holocaust, this trauma has overshadowed the rest of their lives. Early traumas are now resulting in late-onset physical and psychological problems that only now are appearing as concrete symptoms in their old age.

Those survivors of the Shoah who were born January 1, 1928 or later – the oldest of those would have been young children when Hitler came to power in 1933 – and who were in concentration camps, ghettos, or for at least six months under Nazi occupation (or 12 months in Nazi Axis countries) in hiding or under false identity will be eligible to receive a special one-time payment of €2,500 (approximately $3,280) because of special needs.

The agreement is subject to approval by the Bundestag and the Claims Conference. It is envisioned that the fund will become operational on Jan. 1, 2015. Approximately 25 percent of the funding for this program will come from the Claims Conference, with the remaining 75 percent provided by the German government. These were not easy negotiations – especially given the German government position that these survivors were already receiving pensions and therefore should not receive any additional payments. Ultimately, these payments represent acknowledgment of the special needs of those who endured the Shoah as children, especially 70 years later.

The agreement reached in the negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German government comes on the heels of the first-ever symposium held in Berlin of Jewish child survivors, held on August 27 at Centrum Judaicum. The symposium – “Lost Childhood: Jewish Childhood Survivors” – was organized by the Claims Conference, in cooperation with the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Descendants (WFJCSD) and the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. In this context, I want to thank Claims Conference Board members Stefanie Seltzer and Max Lazar Arpels, who have given their hearts and souls to child survivor issues over the years.

During the symposium, internationally recognized experts provided a comprehensive sense of the special suffering endured by Jewish children during the Holocaust and shed light on the particular situation of child survivors today. This special symposium was the subject of last week’s email message from Greg Schneider.

We are all deeply grateful to Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, our Special Negotiator, who traveled to Berlin specifically for Thursday’s four-hour meeting, and returned to the U.S. that very afternoon. His dedication to helping Holocaust victims runs extraordinarily deep. Our thanks also goes to Roman Kent, who has been a driving force in negotiations with the German government, particularly regarding the homecare program, over the years. Amb. Colette Avital also deserves special acknowledgment for her active involvement in the child survivor fund negotiations.

The Claims Conference negotiating delegation comprises Amb. Eizenstat; Roman Kent, Co-Chair; Holocaust survivor leaders Amb. Colette Avital, Uri Chanoch, Ben Helfgott and Marian Turski; Amb. Reuven Merhav and Rabbi Andrew Baker; and Claims Conference Executive Vice President Greg Schneider and the team of professionals from the Claims Conference led by Greg – including Rudi Mahlo, Representative in Germany, Karen Heilig, Christiane Reeh, and Konrad Matschke – who worked diligently to make this new fund a possibility.

These successful negotiations were a result of the skill of our negotiating delegation and their passion to bring a small measure of justice to those who had their childhoods cruelly ripped away. The Claims Conference continues to press for the liberalization of the criteria of other compensation programs so that every survivor can feel safe and cared-for in the last years of their lives.

Best wishes,
Julius Berman

Child Survivor Fund: Frequently Asked Questions

For additional information on this program, please see the announcement.
1. Who is eligible?

This fund is to recognize the specific and unique consequences of deprived childhood of Jews who survived the Holocaust as children.

Eligibility is open to those born January 1, 1928 or later AND who were persecuted as Jews in (I) concentration camp or (II) ghetto (or similar place of incarceration in accordance with the German Slave Labor Program) or (iii) in hiding or under false identity for a period of at least six months under Nazi occupied territory or 12 months in axis countries (in accordance with the persecution requirements of the Article 2 Fund).

2. What is the payment?

If eligible, each person is entitled to a one-time payment of euro 2,500.

3. When will the program begin?

Applications will become available as of January 1, 2015.

4. Is there a cost to apply?

No, application forms are free. There is no cost to apply.

5. Do I need a lawyer?

No.

6. Can an heir apply?

No, applications can only be submitted by the child survivor.

7. Are heirs entitled?

If the child survivor applied, and subsequently dies, the surviving spouse is entitled to payment. If there is no surviving spouse, the child(ren) of the child survivor is entitled to the payment.

8. Is there an income limit?

No.

9. If I already receive an indemnification pension, will I still be eligible?

Yes. No previous indemnification payments will bar eligibility under this fund.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme will mark its tenth anniversary at the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony to be held in the General Assembly Hall in New York on 27 January 2015. We invite survivors to send us a photograph and an inspirational message. Survivors may wish to tell us why it is important for the United Nations to encourage Holocaust remembrance and education around the world or comment on a particular UN Holocaust Programme educational product or activity that you have found to be valuable. For more information about our activities please visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance.

And of course we hope that you are able to attend the ceremony in New York or participate in an event to be organized in your country by the United Nations Information Centre. Please limit your messages to 50 words or less and kindly provide us with your name, ask postal address or email address, so that we may contact you if necessary. Please scan and send your photo and message to us by 1 November 2014, by e-mail at holocaustremembrance@un.org or by mail to:

Olga Yatskevich
The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme
Department of Public Information, United Nations
405 East 42nd Street
Room S-966
New York, NY 10017

Please note that select photos and messages may be included in our educational materials, posted on our website and social media or in our exhibit to be installed in the United Nations Visitors’ Lobby during the month of January.

We look forward to sharing our tenth anniversary with you.

Thank you,
Kimberly Mann, Manager
The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme

For more information on the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme,
please visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance or email holocaustremembrance@un.org

“An epic tale….This film-within-the-film dovetails into a brilliant, emotionally coherent whole. The directors elevate the picture to a level of emotional genius by filming the children’s play as a full-on cinematic adaptation, shot and edited with seriousness and polish….Astonishing!”
– Chris Packham, THE VILLAGE VOICE

“Inventively edited and elegantly lensed…rousing original songs and a lovely score….The power of performing arts to restore hope to damaged
young lives is marvelously captured.”
– VARIETY

SYNOPSIS: In this uniquely structured documentary, filmmakers weave fact with fiction and reality with dream images, to tell the story of healing and transformation through the performing arts. Guided by their patron, renowned actress Peng Phan, the children of the NACA orphanage, the National Action Culture Association in Phnom Penh, work to achieve one of the highest honors in Cambodian society, to perform before the Princess Bopha Devi, a symbol of their culture and heritage. The children have created an original performance that combines royal Cambodian and traditional dances with original melodrama/songs that date back to the Khmer Empire. With its epic battles, forest chases, sequences of horror and tales of heroism, the play parallels the children’s harrowing backstories and mirrors the travails of Cambodia itself as it struggles to leave behind the monstrous legacy of the Khmer Rouge. A story of transcendence through compassion and creative collaboration, STILL I STRIVE celebrates a new generation confronting and transcending the memory of the past, turning toward a peaceful and productive future.

Please join us for the launch of Exit Berlin: How One Woman Saved Her Family from Nazi Germany.

Written by Charlotte Bonelli, stuff Director of AJC Archives, pilule and published by Yale University Press, Exit Berlin is an extraordinary collection of Holocaust -era correspondence of Luzie Hatch, a German Jewish refugee and longtime AJC employee.

May 20, 2014

Reception: 5:30
Program: 6:00

AJC headquarters, 165 E. 56 St.

Suzi Jaffe
AJC Board of Governors

David Harris
AJC Executive Director

Charlotte Bonelli
Author of Exit Berlin

Dramatic Reading
Heike Bachmann
Celebrated Voice-Artist

This program is free but requires registration.
Please CLICK HERE to register.
Kosher refreshments